EU foreign chief calls for stronger international law, support for ICC

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has called for renewed global commitment to international law and stronger backing for the International Criminal Court (ICC), warning that the world faces “a broad assault” on the international legal order, Anadolu agency reported.

Speaking at the College of Europe in Bruges, Kallas said international law “is not perfect and does not solve all problems, but without it, we would sink into an anarchy.”

Kallas praised signs of progress in international justice, noting that “international law has never been more developed, more codified, and more accessible.”

She cited the establishment of the “Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression” against Ukraine, the growing number of ICC member states—now 125, with Armenia and Ukraine recently joining—and a new UN Human Rights Council investigation into alleged human rights violations in Afghanistan.

However, she also warned of serious challenges. “Eclipsing this positive news is a fifth observation, the dangerous paradox we face today,” she said. “A broad assault is going on against the international legal order, human rights, international norms, and the institutions we have established to enforce them.”

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Kallas reaffirmed the EU’s “long and robust policy of support” for the ICC, quoting the EU Council’s position: “The EU’s policy on the ICC is to advance universal support for the court, ensure its independence and counter threats to its effective functioning.”

She acknowledged that one EU member state has announced its intention to withdraw from the ICC but stressed that “all member states are legally bound by the decisions that are adopted by the council, including the decision in support of the ICC.”

Her remarks come amid escalating political tensions surrounding the ICC, particularly following US sanctions, announced on 20 August against several of the court’s judges for alleged “anti-Israel positions.”

At the time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the targeted judges were “directly involved in the ICC’s efforts to investigate, arrest, or prosecute American or Israeli citizens without their countries’ consent,” calling the court a “tool of lawfare” against the United States and its ally, Israel.

On 18 October, the ICC in The Hague rejected Israel’s appeal against arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with their ongoing genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.

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